| From the Richmond Examiner |
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| September 10, 1861 |
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| Our Camps On the Potomac |
| Near the Potomac, Sept. 5, 1861 |
| The Journey to Manassas |
| Imagine the distress and
fatigue of a journey from Richmond to Manassas, extending over eleven
hours, and in a train overcrowded, the aisles and platforms of the
carriages filled, and even their roofs covered with passengers. We left
Richmond on Tuesday in a train well filled, but which was soon
overcrowded and oppressed along the route by soldiers leaving the
hospitals under a general order for the return of the convalescent
patients, in prospect of a battle. From the hospitals at
Charlottesville, Gordonsville and other points, large numbers of
soldiers were taken on the train -- many of them pale and feeble, but
all eager for the destination of their journey, anticipating the
purposes of their recall. |
| The animation of the scene in
the general expectation of an approaching battle, to which the train was
hurrying us, was striking and extreme. The soldiers hurrahed; flags were
shown and waved by ladies at the stations and neighbouring homes; and
frequent illustrations of patriotic exhilaration were given in hampers
of fruit distributed by their generous donor freely and without price to
their brave defenders. |
| Among the passengers for
Manassas on last Tuesday was the Secretary of War. He had been summoned
by a dispatch stating that Col. Jones, of the 4th Alabama regiment, was
at the point of death, from the consequences of a wound received in the
Manassas battle, and entreated his presence, as an old and very intimate
friend, in his last moments. The Secretary was intercepted at
Gordonsville by the affecting intelligence that his friend had died that
morning, and that another had been added to the sad realizations of the
cost of our great victory at Manassas, in the death of one of the most
gallant sons of the soldier State of Georgia. Col. Jones died from the
effect of his wound -- the piercing of both his legs by a Minie bullet.
***** |
| P. |
| {The route from
Richmond to Manassas was usually made on the Virginia Central RR to
Gordonsville, then to Manassas on the Orange & Alexandria RR. However,
the writer does not mention a change of trains, so the Virginia Central
train may have been allowed to make the entire trip.} |
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